AppCMD Quick Reference Guide for
IIS 7 installed on Win2k8 Servers
What is AppCMD
AppCMD is a replacement of IIS Admin Scripts (Commonly know as Vbs
admin scripts for IIS) in IIS7 or Higher installed on WIn2k8 Server or
higher. AppCmd.exe is the single command line tool for managing IIS 7
and above. It exposes all key server management functionality through a
set of intuitive management objects that can be manipulated from the
command line or from scripts.
What AppCMD is Capable of
AppCmd enables you to easily control the server without using a
graphical administration tool and to quickly automate server
management tasks without writing code.
Some of the things you can do with AppCmd:
Create and configure sites, apps, application pools, and virtual directories
Start and stop sites, and recycle application pools
List running worker processes, and examine currently executing requests
Search, manipulate, export, and import IIS and ASP.NET configuration
AppCmd also allows server administrators to build advanced
management tasks simply by combining multiple simpler AppCmd.exe
commands, or reusing the output of the tool inside another program.
AppCMD Quick reference
IIS AppCMD is very handy for deployment automation of .NET web
applications. The AppCMD can be found at
%systemroot%\system32\inetsrv or
%systemroot%\\SysWOW64\inetsrv on web server. Please refer to IIS
Administration Tools for details. The following is a quick reference for
the most common usages of AppCMD in web application deployment
automation.
AppCMD Quick reference
1. Add Site
AppCMD add site /name:MySite /bindings:http://*:80
/physicalpath:”d:\MySitePath”
2. Add App Pool
AppCMD add apppool /name:MyAppPool
/managedRuntimeVersion:v4.0 (e.g. targeting .NET 4.0)
3. Set App Pool Credential
AppCMD set config /section:applicationPools
/[name='MyAppPool'].processModel.identityType:SpecificUser
/[name='MyAppPool'].processModel.userName:MyDomain\MyAccou
nt
/[name='MyAppPool'].processModel.password:MyAccountPassword
AppCMD Quick reference
4.Add App
AppCMD add app /site.name:"MySite" /path:/MyApp
/physicalpath:"d:\MySitePath\MyApp"
5. Assign/Change App Pool to an App
AppCMD set app "MySite/MyApp" /applicationpool:MyAppPool
6. List (App, Site, AppPool, etc.)
AppCMD list app
AppCMD list site
AppCMD list apppool
7. Enable/Disable Anonymous Authentication (True to Enable, False to
Disable)
AppCMD set config "MySite/MyApp" section:system.webServer/security/authentication/anonymousAuthen
tication /enabled:"True" /commit:apphost
AppCMD Quick reference
8. Enable Windows Authentication (True to Enable, False to Disable)
appcmd.exe set config "MySite/MyApp" section:system.webServer/security/authentication/windowsAuthentic
ation /enabled:"True" /commit:apphost
9. Change Windows Authentication Providers (NTLM or Negotiate)
AppCMD set config MySite/MyApp section:system.webServer/security/authentication/windowsAuthentic
ation /~providers /commit:apphost (clear provider list)
AppCMD set config MySite/MyApp section:system.webServer/security/authentication/windowsAuthentic
ation /-providers.[value='NTLM'] /commit:apphost (set to NTLM)
AppCMD set config MySite/MyApp section:system.webServer/security/authentication/windowsAuthentic
ation /+providers.[value='Negotiate'] /commit:apphost (set to
Negotiate)
AppCMD Quick reference
10. Add Custom Header – for example, nosniff header or IE 7
compatiable header
AppCMD set config MySite -section:system.webServer/httpProtocol
/+customHeaders.[name='X-Content-Type-Options',value='nosniff']
/commit:apphost
AppCMD set config MySite -section:system.webServer/httpProtocol
/+customHeaders.[name='X-UA-Compatible',value='IE=EmulateIE7']
/commit:apphost
11. Add Default Document - error if it exists already
AppCMD set config "MySite/MyApp" /section:defaultDocument
/+files.[value='default.asmx']
12. Delete App and Site - error if it doesn’t exist
AppCMD delete app "MySite/MyApp"
AppCMD delete site "MySite"
AppCMD Quick reference
13. Delete AppPool- error if it doesn’t exist or it is used by app
AppCMD delete apppool MyAppPool
14. Backup and Restore IIS Settings
AppCMD add backup MyBackup
AppCMD restore backup MyBackup
15. HTTPS Binding if you are using HTTP over SSL
AppCMD set site /site.name:"MyApp"
/+bindings.[protocol='https',bindingInformation='*:443:MySSLCertific
ate']
AppCMD Quick reference
How About Backup and restore option available in IIS .
There are times when we IIS gets corrupted and needs to be
recovered , requires a quick workaround specially in cases
where availability is on high priority. Below are the steps
through which IIS can be recovered in Seconds!!!
AppCMD Quick reference
1) Creating a backup :To create a backup, simply type in:
>AppCmd Add Backup "BackupName"
You can omit the name, in which case AppCmd is going to generate
the backup name automatically using the current date and time.
When a backup is created, the following happens:
1.A directory with the backup name is created under the
%windir%system32inetsrvbackup directory.
2.AppCmd copies the current configuration files into the backup
directory, including applicationHost.config (IIS global configuration),
administration.config (Admin Tool's configuration), metabase.xml and
mbschema.xml. The last two files contain the metabase data that is
still used by some IIS services including SMTP and FTP, that have not
been migrated to the new configuration system. AppCmd only backs
up the files that are there, so if you delete any of these files, and then
make a backup, the backup will not contain the missing files.
AppCMD Quick reference
2) Managing existing backups
To list the backups that exist on the server, type in:
>AppCmd List Backup
This will list the backup objects, including their names that can be
used to restore or delete them. To delete any of these backups if its
no longer needed, type in:
>AppCmd List Backup "BackupName"
3) Restoring a backup
To restore a backup, type in:
>AppCmd Restore Backup "BackupName"
This will stop IIS (equivalent to calling IISRESET.EXE /STOP), and
overwrite the server's state with the files in the specified backup
directory. Then, IIS will be re-started (equivalent to calling
IISRESET.EXE /START).